


that's our deal

by hadrons_collide



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: F/M, Making Out As A Distraction, Platonic Bedsharing, This Fic Has Everything, skinny jeans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-02
Updated: 2014-07-02
Packaged: 2018-02-07 02:33:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1881828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hadrons_collide/pseuds/hadrons_collide
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate lets Bucky crash with her in LA and they make out and track down Madame Masque</p>
            </blockquote>





	that's our deal

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place at some point in time during Kate's LA Woman arc and obviously after Black Widow Hunt. Vague spoilers for both but if you haven't read one or both of those please go read them first I promise you'll be more entertained.
> 
> Title from Best Coast, because what else would you use to title a fic about Kate in LA
> 
> (if you ever want to talk to me about buckykate [on tumblr](http://captaincarols.tumblr.com) go for it i'm always ready)

Rooftop yoga is Kate's favorite thing about LA. She climbs up every morning, watches the sun come up, and listens to the waves crashing on the sand as she stretches out on the roof of the trailer. Lucky stretches his own legs, pouncing on crabs and chasing the waves, and it's a very peaceful routine.

This morning, however, Lucky just barks and barks until Kate looks down at him. He's running towards a severely overdressed man in a sweatshirt and gloves.

"It's summer, dude," Kate yells down at the man. When he looks up at her, she almost falls off the roof.

"Hey, Hawkeye," Bucky Barnes says casually, like he hasn't been dead for two years.

She climbs down to the sand as gracefully as she can manage and circles him a few times to make sure it's really him. Bucky watches her, lip curled in amusement. He's got a scraggly beard and he definitely needs a haircut, but he slips off one of his gloves and waves at her with metal fingers, so who else could it be? When Kate finally decides it's not a trick, that it's really him, she punches him hard in his right arm. "What the FUCK, dude? I went to your fucking FUNERAL!" She hits him again for good measure, but Bucky just laughs.

"Sorry, Kate. Turns out I'm pretty good at not dying."

Kate hits him a third time, because that's the worst joke ever.

 

"So how'd you know I was out here?" Kate asks she sips her coffee. Bucky had peeled off his sweatshirt as soon as Kate closed the door, and she's now trying her hardest not to stare at the majesty that is Bucky Barnes' chest. At least not too obviously.

"I mentioned to Clint that I wanted to get away from everything in New York, he said you said the same thing before you ran out here." Of course it was Clint. But that means-

"Wait, he knew you were alive? And didn't tell me?"

Bucky shrugs. "You technically need a level eight SHIELD clearance to know I'm not dead. So basically no one knows."

"Oh," Kate says into her mug. So of all the people that he could have chosen to hide out with, he's choosing her. She tries not to think about any possible implications that may have, just the simple fact that Bucky is very alive and sitting at her kitchen table. "So did you use your spy skills to find where I was or what?"

He grins and nods. "Yeah, I'm still the best in the business, no need to worry there." Lucky nuzzles up to him and Bucky smiles wider, rubbing behind the dog's ears. "Plus, you've been in so many police reports here, it would've been harder not to find you than to find you."

She makes a face at him before taking another sip of coffee. "So why me? Like, why aren't you hiding out with Natasha?"

His hand stops moving on Lucky's head and his face goes as hard as steel. "Long story," is all Bucky says.

Kate leans back in her chair and shrugs her shoulders. "I've got time."

 

They shift over to the couch and Kate watches as his metal fingers grip the fabric while he talks about the sleeper agents, about SHIELD having to wipe Natasha's memory of him. "Thought it might come back, but it's been a year and she still doesn't know me."

"Shit. That... that sucks," she says weakly, knowing it's not anything close to what he needs to hear. She rubs his arm the way she used to do with Cassie, and she feels him relax next to her.

"She's better off without me fucking everything up," Bucky mutters.

Kate frowns at him. "Okay, no. I got away from Clint so I could get away from self-deprecating self-destructive bullshit like that. And sure, a lot of the time he was right, because he was a human disaster and Jessica was definitely better off without him. But you," she says, poking him in the shoulder, "You are a good guy. And if you're gonna crash here with me, you need to believe that."

Bucky stares at her. "You want me to stay?"

"I mean, the couch pulls out into a bed, so I don't mind. Just because you look like a hobo doesn't mean you have to live like one."

He rubs at his beard and grins. "I've looked worse. But thanks, Kate. You're on your way to becoming my favorite Hawkeye."

Bucky squeezes her hand and Kate tries to ignore the way her stomach flips.

 

She wakes up to Bucky waking up, shouting and breathing so hard she can hear it all the way back in the bedroom. A quick glance at her phone tells Kate it's 2:18 AM, so she rolls out of bed and wanders to the living room to see what's up.

She finds Bucky with a gun in one hand and a knife in the other, looking around the room in panic. Kate holds her hands up and tries to smile. "Just me. Kate. Hawkeye. Remember me?" She walks over to him as calmly as she can and he lowers his weapons, still breathing heavy.

"Forgot where I was," he says, putting the safety back on his gun. Kate doesn't even want to ask where he had that stashed when he showed up. "Also, probably should've mentioned I'm a terrible sleeper. It was better when Nat was around but..."

Kate shushes Bucky and helps him back over to the sofa bed. "You're good, I've got you," she murmurs, curling up next to him. Kate rubs his chest until his heartbeat slows back to normal, until he finally falls back to sleep.

She wakes up to the sun rising with her head on Bucky's chest, one arm draped across him, and Bucky fast asleep under her. Kate smiles to herself and closes her eyes again.

 

Bucky apologizes when he wakes up, of course. "You didn't have to, I would've fallen asleep eventually."

Kate shakes her head. "I get it. Being alone sucks. Being alone when you've been through hell sucks even worse. After I was attacked in the park... after Cassie died... I didn't sleep for weeks. It's fine, really."

The next night, when she hears him tossing and turning and muttering in his sleep, Kate goes out and curls up next to Bucky automatically. After a week, she tells him she's tired of sleeping on the couch and drags him back to the bedroom.

"Isn't this... awkward?" Bucky asks.

"Only now that you say it's awkward," Kate replies. That doesn't stop her from snuggling into Bucky, and it doesn't stop Bucky from wrapping an arm around her.

 

It only really gets awkward when Kate starts having sex dreams about Bucky. The kind she had back when she first met him, but much more explicit given the way she now knows exactly how Bucky's chest feels, how his arms feel wrapped around her, how his breath feels on her neck. It gets even worse when she wakes up from one and Bucky's spooning her, his dick hard against her ass, clearly having dreams of his own. Kate bites her lip, fists her hands in the sheets, and tries to think of anything besides the press of Bucky's body against hers.

 

It doesn't take long for them to fall into a routine. Bucky jogs while she does her yoga - she tries to get him to join her, but he laughs and says he'll never be able to calm down enough - and most mornings end with Lucky chasing him into the ocean. They spar afterwards- Kate knows he goes easy on her, but she's learning so much about physical combat that she doesn't care. Bucky eventually lets Kate cut his hair down to something normal and stylish - he pouts at first and says he hates it, but she catches him fixing it in the mirror and grinning on more than one occasion.

He starts going to the library with Kate when she's working on cases. She refuses to let Bucky help her with the actual cases- this is her thing and she wants to do it all herself, and he respects that. When he offers to show her a few tricks to make things easier, though, she lets him.

"How do you know how to do all this?" she asks, watching in awe as he remotely accesses security cameras from around the city. "You're like... old."

Bucky snorts. "Doesn't mean I can't learn. I've been off the ice for a while, Katie, I've had plenty of time to learn how to do things."

"Yeah, yeah." Kate rests her chin on his shoulder and watches him work. She expects him to flinch, but she thinks she might actually see a hint of a smile on his face. "You're gonna show me how to do all this, right?"

"If you can keep up," Bucky replies, and he's definitely smiling now.

 

"So why exactly do you need me to go with you to this thing?" Bucky whines from the dressing room, and Kate can hear him struggling with the skinny jeans she'd picked out for him. He doesn't need the jeans as much as a new shirt or two, but they're already in Urban Outfitters and the idea of Bucky in skinny jeans made her feel a lot of things, so she'd handed them to him and pushed him into the dressing room.

"The invitation seemed sketchy," she says. "Youth Philanthropy Night? The fact that really only my friends and SHIELD and my dad know that I'm living here? It's got Whitney Frost written all over it, so I'm gonna need backup."

"And that's....?" He comes out of the dressing room and Kate forgets what he even asked. Because holy shit, his ass. It's everything she never knew she wanted until ten minutes ago. She knows she's staring and she doesn't care. Bucky just grins at her. "Eyes up here, Katie." He laughs when she flicks him off.

"You know you now have to get these, right?" She says, not even bothering to hide the way she's ogling him. "Your ass was literally made for these pants."

He rolls his eyes, but Bucky's still smiling. "Yeah, I know. So Whitney?"

Kate's mind shifts back to the problem at hand. "Yeah. Madame Masque.."

Recognition flashes in Bucky's eyes. "Oh, yeah, we dealt with her before. She was with the Hood then."

"Yeah, and now she kinda wants to murder me, so..." Bucky raises an eyebrow and she sighs. "I locked her in a closet and impersonated her in Madripoor?"

He cracks up laughing. "Holy shit, Kate. Seriously?"

She nods. "Totally happened. But she's in LA, she basically kidnapped me last month then robbed me and drugged me, so I just assume everything weird that happens to me is related to her in some way. She's basically my nemesis, now that I think about it." She says the word with pride in her voice, and Bucky grins.

"My little Hawkeye, all grown up."

Kate punches him in the shoulder. "Fuck you. Just for that, you're getting two pairs of these jeans."

 

Despite Bucky admitting he likes the pants, he's still fidgeting with them when they show up at the club for the party. "They're just a little tight is all. I had to put my knives in my boots."

Kate rolls her eyes. "You could've left the knives like a normal person."

"And be the worst backup ever? No way." He stretches one more time and sighs. "Okay, we can go in now."

Kate smiles and lets Bucky drape an arm around her shoulders as they walk in.

 

The event isn't as sketchy as Kate assumed it would be. Bucky stays on her arm the whole evening, but her invitation was apparently from the police chief as an olive branch for giving her so much grief the last months, and they both relax when he explains that to them.

"You're helping people, Miss Bishop, despite the fact that you're a pain in the ass." The chief glances at Bucky. "You should be proud- your girlfriend's got a bright future."

Bucky doesn't correct him, just grins and squeezes Kate's shoulder. "Yeah, Kate's the best."

She elbows him playfully and waits until the chief leaves to glare at Bucky. "Girlfriend?"

"Sorry, I should've said I was just a ninety year old dead guy who sleeps in your bed," Bucky replies with a smirk. "I can go correct him if you want..."

Kate elbows him again. "Shut up. But you're definitely buying me a drink now."

It's when they're waiting at the bar, though, that Kate spies a familiar face framed by brown hair, and she quickly turns away and mutters "she's here" to Bucky.

He immediately wraps an arm around her and she ducks her head into his shoulder. When he looks over his shoulder and sees Whitney Frost searching the room for them, he turns back to the bartender and hands him a twenty. "Ex is here, and she hates my new girlfriend, so... don't tell anyone where we went, okay?" The bartender nods and Bucky pulls Kate towards the back of the club.

"Don't worry, I know where all the exits are," Bucky murmurs to her, still scanning the room for signs anyone is coming after them. "Just act natural and we'll be-"

He stops and Kate doesn't even have time to think about why before he's leaning down and kissing her. Bucky backs her into the wall, hands sliding up her sides, and Kate knows it has to be a distraction, knows he's using a public display of affection to make people not look at them, but she can't stop from moaning a little because it's one hell of a kiss.

Bucky's breathing hard when he finally pulls back, and his eyes linger a little too long in the v-neck of Kate's dress before he glances around to make sure they're being ignored. "We're good," he says, grabbing Kate's hand again and pulling her towards the exit.

When they're outside and they've made sure nobody followed them and nobody's waiting for them outside, Kate pushes Bucky against a wall before he can hail a cab and kisses him again. Her fingers rub against the stubble on his cheeks and her tongue slides against his.  
"Shit, did they follow us?" Bucky asks, glancing around when he pulls back from Kate.

"No, dumbass," Kate says with a sigh. "I just wanted to kiss you."

"Oh." Bucky makes a show of putting Kate in the back of the cab on her own, sliding into the passenger seat. She spends the whole ride home glaring at the back of his stupid head.

 

When they get home, Bucky shuffles his feet and looks everywhere but at Kate. "I can sleep on the couch again if-" Bucky starts, but Kate shakes her head and crosses the living room to kiss him. There's no further trepidation on Bucky's end- he groans low and kisses her back, kisses Kate until she can't take it anymore. She hooks her thumbs in his belt loops and drags him back to bed.

Bucky gets three fingers in Kate before she's screaming so loud they can probably hear her down the beach.

In the morning when they wake up, she sucks Bucky's cock until his metal fingers tighten in her hair, except that only makes Kate take him deeper down her throat.

 

They continue after that as normal - yoga, sparring, library, sex. They don't actually talk about it, but they both sleep better after they fuck.

 

"I found Whitney," Bucky says one day at the library. Kate rolls her chair over from where she'd been scanning police scanner data to look at his screen. There's a map pulled up on his screen and she tells him to print it and get a car, because Madame Masque is going down.

 

"You brought your boyfriend, I see," Whitney sneers. Not that she really has any room to sneer, from where she's tied to a chair in the middle of her own house.

"First of all, he's hotter than any boyfriend you'll ever have, and he's like, the best spy in the world, so fuck you," Kate says. Bucky grins at her and she continues. "Second of all, fuck you. You made my life out here a living hell and now you're going to rot in SHIELD jail for a long time." She smirks as Whitney's eyes widen. "I win, bitch. Suck it."

"Inspiring speech, Hawkeye," Bucky says with a laugh. Kate flicks him off and he laughs again before crossing the room to kiss her.

They don't realize SHIELD has shown up until Clint groans "Do you know how bad this looks, Katie?"

Bucky flicks Clint off and kisses Kate again.


End file.
